Thomas Rawls officially active against the Eagles

The Seattle Seahawks have officially announced their inactive players for their contest against the Philadelphia Eagles that begins today at 1:25 PM Pacific:

This confirms that Thomas Rawls will indeed play for the first time since early on this season. Rawls, coming off of a leg injury that has held him out for several weeks, looks to rebound after poor showings at the beginning of the year. The progression of the Seattle offensive line will likely be a factor here.

While C.J. Prosise is still the lead back, Rawls will be a part of the game plan and should get carries here and there, especially on the goal line.

Seahawks fans are quick to forget how dominant Rawls looked during his rookie season. According to both advanced statistics and the eye test, Rawls was one of the most dominant running backs in the league when he was on the field in 2015.

Take this run against the Vikings for example:

A hole is opened up between the hashes, and Rawls hits it hard. He runs through an ankle tackle before cutting away easily from the charging safety, lowering his shoulders, and bulldozing forwards for an extra ten yards.

Rawls’ skillset combines patience, vision, and power. When he is healthy, he is one of the best tailbacks in the NFL. His activation today is a promising sign that we may be a week closer to seeing the second-year player returning to full strength.

We will soon see how close he truly is.

Another development gleaned from the list of inactive players is that running back Troymaine Pope will be active over rookie Alex Collins. Pope showed a lot of potential in the preseason so his usage today and going forward will interesting to follow.